Chapter 18
As soon as the lecture ended, Roho led Belver out.
She wanted to go to all sorts of places with him.
So where would be a good place to go?
After spending so long trying to get close to him, she wanted somewhere the two of them could be alone and chat comfortably together.
In her opinion, there was one wholesome place that fit the bill.
“Why don’t we go study together in the library?”
“Sounds good.”
“Then let’s go. We can figure it out together.”
Belver wanted to use what he’d learned in the lecture to prepare for the Magic Department’s practical exam.
He figured he’d need a little more knowledge for that, so he decided to go to the library.
Besides, he’d never been to the academy library before.
He realized he’d been living at the academy for quite a while without visiting many of its places.
Resolving to explore farther afield from now on, he looked at Roho.
He didn’t know where the library was.
At first, Roho didn’t understand why he’d stopped and was staring at her so confidently.
His cold, silent gaze made her wonder if the Bellatrix from back then had returned.
Then she realized there was something he wanted.
They’d decided to go to the library, he’d stopped, and he wanted something.
One possibility came to mind.
“Do you perhaps not know where it is?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll show you. Follow me.”
For a moment, she worried she’d guessed wrong, but thankfully, she’d gotten it right.
Roho breathed a sigh of relief inside and decided that from now on, she’d have to figure out what Belver wanted first.
He’d mellowed a lot, but still had that distinctive air of being a step removed from the world.
She resolved to be careful, lest he turn back into the awful Bellatrix he’d once been.
While Roho was privately freaking out and making resolutions all by herself, Belver was also relieved inside.
He’d already gone overboard and embarrassed himself in the lecture hall. Saying he didn’t know the way, too, would be mortifying.
Belver’s delicate heart cried out that even something so trivial was embarrassing.
The remnants of his male identity urged him to say it proudly, but the words couldn’t reach Belver, whose mind and body had been left in a fragile state by the Bellatrixes in his imagination thoroughly wrecking him.
“If you never went to the library or attended lectures, what did you do?”
“I spent time with Bel...ver.”
“For all three months since you enrolled?”
“Yeah.”
Belver reminisced, thinking that three months had already passed.
It had been a long time since he’d met Bellatrix at the front gate and trembled with fear right after their bodies had switched.
So many things in his life had changed since then.
For one thing, his body had changed, and someone who loved him had appeared at his side, where there’d been no one before.
Thinking back on that time brought a small, modest smile to his lips, like a tiny flower blooming in winter; even he thought it was cute.
Roho’s disgust was an added bonus.
To her, someone who’d never been in love, it all seemed incredibly strange and unfamiliar.
Still, she didn’t think she would change this much even if she fell in love.
“You’ve become so much more elegant.”
“I have?”
“Yes. You used to give off a very rough, rugged impression, like a boy. But now every little thing you do is delicate, like a girl.”
“Is that a compliment?”
“Of course it is. The way Bella is now is something I’d like to emulate.”
Belver didn’t like Roho’s assessment, so he offered the strongest protest he could.
It was frustrating that he couldn’t tell her, the way he did Bellatrix, that he was a man and that he was cool.
He’d acted the same way as always, so why did he come across as girlish, while Bellatrix came across as manly?
He had no idea.
Naturally, Roho meant every word she said.
Belver’s current appearance was exactly the sort of noblewoman every girl raised in a noble family would want to emulate.
He even looked like a living textbook on how a noble lady ought to behave.
His old way of speaking remained, but his tone had grown so gentle that it put listeners at ease.
Every one of his gestures was restrained, but rather than seeming stiff, they conveyed the graceful beauty that came from such restraint.
He was the very model of an exemplary noble lady.
It was an assessment Belver, who was listening, found anything but welcome.
“What should we study? Maybe go over some more theory? Bella and I are both perfect, but there’s no harm in reviewing.”
When they reached the library, the two of them reserved a study room for two.
Since Belver had simply followed Roho the whole way, he was surprised that a medieval-fantasy library had such a modern system.
After all, this was a novel’s world where magic was woven into everything, so many modern conveniences had magic in place of science.
“Sounds good.”
“Okay. Let’s go find some books. We could request them, but part of the fun of a library is picking them out ourselves.”
“Let’s do that. But show me around a little. I don’t know anything.”
“Of course.”
This time, Belver asked confidently.
By the time they reached the library, he’d calmed down quite a bit.
He was still awkward about asking Roho for things, but his curiosity about the library outweighed his awkwardness.
He wondered what kinds of books this world’s library had.
The library in the game had been categorized as if it were full of nothing but magic books.
What kinds of books would people actually read?
By the time Belver, who’d gone out full of excitement, returned to the study room, his face was glowing like a peach at the peak of its season.
It was so ripe that it looked as if a bite would release a burst of tangy juice.
The reason was the books cradled in his arms.
“You can read them, you know. They’re important to Bella right now.”
“I’m just checking them. The academy shouldn’t have anything indecent!”
“Sure~ I understand. I’ll study over here, so go ahead and read them.”
Belver did his best to ignore Roho’s giggles and took a seat across from her.
He tried to keep his gaze on Roho, but couldn’t stop it from drifting lower and lower.
Each time his gaze dropped, his already-flushed face grew a little redder.
He was dying to read what he held in his arms, but was holding back with superhuman patience until Roho opened her book first.
Belver was far too shy to be the first to open and read the books he’d brought.
Roho, who’d been giggling, took pity on Belver as he squirmed in front of her and opened her book first, pretending to read.
Naturally, she was only pretending; her gaze was still on him.
She wondered what his reaction would be when he read that book.
‘He’s embarrassed by a romance novel. He really is such a girly girl. And he doesn’t seem to know what it is, either.’
Belver glanced cautiously at Roho, then opened one of the books and began to read.
He read quickly, moving smoothly through the text without getting stuck.
When Roho saw that Belver wasn’t reacting at all and was focused on reading, she looked away.
“Ugh…”
How much time had passed?
Roho had read about half of the theory book she’d brought when she heard a groaning sound from across the table.
She looked to see what it was and found Belver covering one eye with a hand and reading the novel through the gap between his fingers.
His face was red, too, so she could guess what sort of scene he’d come across.
She knew what kind of books were on the shelf Belver had picked that book from.
Among the romance novels, there was a section that allowed books with some erotic descriptions, since the academy’s students were all adults.
In short, they were erotic novels.
She’d left him alone because, judging by how readily he’d picked one, he seemed not to know what kind of book it was.
She’d simply told him they were romance novels, after all.
“Indecent… Indecent… Indecent…”
Belver was embarrassed and knew it was indecent, but he gave in to the wicked urge to keep reading.
He committed the outrage of refusing to put the novel down, even as he groaned and covered one eye with his hand.
As he muttered that indecent things were unacceptable, he failed to notice Roho had stopped reading and was giggling at him.
He didn’t know why he was doing it, either.
It was obviously indecent, and he was even muttering that it was indecent, so why couldn’t he put it down?
His inexplicable concentration only came to an end when Roho interrupted him.
“Is it that interesting? Haven’t you done all that with your partner? You two are so lovey-dovey.”
“W-what nonsense are you talking about?! I was only checking how indecent it was! And I haven’t done anything like that yet!”
Belver was startled and snapped the book shut.
He couldn’t believe she’d been watching him read such an indecent book.
He was so embarrassed he could die.
Even worse, he’d momentarily imagined himself and Bellatrix in the scene Roho had described.
Recreating the most indecent scene imaginable with him and Bellatrix.
The height of indecency.
And he was still in Bellatrix’s body, too.
‘Bellatrix… touching me there… Ugh… What on earth am I thinking?! Forget it already!!!’
Belver shook his head wildly again, trying to forget the indecent scene filling his mind.
He didn’t forget to shoot a sharp glare at Roho, who’d made him suffer like this.
Roho had grown used to it by now, so she calmly accepted the glare and fired back with a question.
“You haven’t yet? You’ve been dating for three months already, haven’t you? I hear lots of couples do it on the very day they start dating these days.”
“Indecent! Such things should only happen after at least a year…!”
“So you are thinking about doing it?”
“I’m not!”
Belver truly had no intention of doing anything like that.
After all, would he do something like that when they weren’t even a real couple?
If Bellatrix really begged him, he might consider it, but…
“No!!!”